Battle of Garigliano

The Battle of Garigliano was the decisive battle of the Second Italian War, in which an army of Spanish and Condotierri defeated the French army by a surprise attack.

Battle
With the French entrenched at a supply base near Gaeta, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba awaited reinforcements from Italian nobles Bartolomeo d'Alviano and Fabio Orsini. After doing so, he had an army of 15,000 troops, facing 23,000 French men-at-arms under Ludovico II of Saluzzo.

Gonzalo de Cordoba showed his offensive flair by defeating the larger French force through a bold maneuver that involved moving troops across a river unobserved on an improvised pontoon bridge. The surprised French could not send reinforcements because their nearby troops had illnesses, and they did not want to spread a disease. They retreated, destroying the bridges and leaving behind all of their cannon and sickly soldiers. 8,000 French and 900 Spanish were lost. The Spanish losses included Lord Orsini, who had suffered a head injury that led to his death.